The difference is that drink driving has been shown to impair a driver's ability to a greater or lesser degree. Most drivers will have slower reaction times at least, and may be affected in other ways. It will nearly always be the case that alcohol will not improve a drivers skill, concentration or ability. Consuming alcohol and then driving can therefore be seen as a deliberate socially irresponsible act that could endanger other road users.
That being said, I know drivers who are far more dangerous cold sober than some good drivers I know would be after a few pints.
Speeding however is a different matter. It is sometimes possible to drive at higher speeds than the limit without increaing the risk of accident. So there is a difference between irresponsible speeding, ie going too fast for the conditions, and driving safely at high speeds. The former should of course be penalised, but not the latter, and this is the problem that some people have with speed limits. Enforcing speed limits can sometimes penalise drivers who are driving safely.
But it would be very unusual if a driver who had been drinking did not suffer from some impairment of his ability, even though that ability might still be much better than some of the other sober drivers on the road.
Numbers on a swizzle stick 1171buttess Many researchers have. (The UK drink drive limit is 0.8% BAC) Low to moderate BAC's (0.03 to 0.05 percent) interfere with voluntary...
In both cases what we really want to achieve is to improve road safety by discouraging unsafe driving practices. This is very difficult for the law to do, there is no standard measure of driving safety, and can be no such thing as a "safety limit". Speed limits and the blood alcohol limit both try to address this lack, albeit in a crude and unsatisfactory way.
In the end it will always come down to the same thing. Road users need to take responsibility for their safety and that of the others around them. They are the people who are in the best position to decide what is safe and what is not. Unfortunately, a few irresponsible road users spoil it for the rest of us, and so we have to put up with blanket laws against speeding and drink-driving which are sometimes unfair on safe and responsible drivers.
Martin
-- Created on the Iyonix PC - the world's fastest RISC OS computer.
